I don’t understand Tyrant. Not once had Jamal ever mentioned fishing, and in these last two episodes he wouldn’t shut up about it. Also, he tells Barry that they should “play with each other,” which is…off-putting. “Gone Fishing” brought Tyrant‘s first (problematic, uneven) season to a close. The bad episodes – like “My Brother’s Keeper” – vastly outnumbered the good ones (good one, I should say) like “Gaslight.” Ultimately, “Gone Fishing” played like the rest of the season – intermittently interesting, but more frustrating than anything else.
Barry asks Fauzi to write him a speech for when he ascends to the presidency, and of course Fauzi is an asshole about it. I’m so over that guy, and the best part of Tyrant ending is that it means no more Fauzi or Leila on my TV. It turns out to be for naught, as Tucker and Mia Ecksley tell Barry that the State Department is out (they have this conversation in front of a picture of John Kerry, who was either stung by 1,000 bees right before it was taken, or else had prosthetic makeup put on to look like a Muppet. Very distracting, as you can tell). With Tariq in jail and the rest of his cronies blown up, State has pretty much everything they want. Which is actually a pretty good point. Nevertheless, Barry blackmails them by saying he has a letter to the New York Times all ready to go, so Coup Party 2014 is back on…after more goddamn fishing.
If you think fishing in real life is boring, wait until you see it on Tyrant! This show can take something fun-sounding like “get drunk on a boat” and make it dull to watch. Ashraf Barhom’s performance has steadily deteriorated over the course of the season, and perhaps he and Moran Atias share an acting coach, because all his lines are delivered with the same weird, halting inflection.
There’s a definite narrative lull in the middle of “Gone Fishing,” as Emma and Jenna are pickpocketed while out for lunch. This sequence drags on and on, as they argue with the restaurant owner, then with the policeman that he calls, who is able to ascertain Emma’s identity through literally one second of Googling. So many hoops to jump through to make sure Emma and Jenna miss their flight, and the whole family has to hole up in the embassy. (Also, side note: this show cares so little about Sammy since his subplot with Abdul fizzled that the poor kid doesn’t have a single line in the season finale. True Blood just gave the same treatment to Lafayette in its series finale. Maybe TV shows should stop using gay characters as window dressing.)
Anyway, right when it looks like Jamal is going to be arrested, Barry is arrested instead, because Nusrat’s dad can’t hold his liquor and immediately blabbed to Jamal about the coup. That guy would never be invited to Delta Psi’s kick-ass Mug Chug & Date Rape Contest.
So that’s where Tyrant leaves us: Barry in jail, his family at the American embassy. At this point I feel worse for John Tucker than I do for Barry, because now Tucker has to put up with Barry’s shitty family. Jamal says he’s going to order Barry’s execution, which I don’t buy for a minute because this show doesn’t have the balls to go through with something like that.
But what if it did? How cool would that be, to open season two with a shot of Barry’s corpse swinging from a gallows in the Plaza? I’d watch the hell out of that show. This one, not so much.
“Gone Fishing” grade: 3 stars
Season grade: 2 1/2 stars
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